Korcula is one of the most beautiful of Croatia`s many islands and home to some of the country`s best wine, olive oil and food. I take a tour….Korcula and Croatia.

Less hyped than Hvar and more remote than busy Brac, Korcula is the kind of place that might convincingly be branded as a boutique island. The sloping rocks of Proizd island, just off Vela Luka, provide Korcula with a likely contender for the title of Dalmatia`s foremost boutique beach. Tourism on the island is increasingly driven by a new breed of discerning tourist. Korcula is a beautiful place, especially in the summer. The main road from the ferry port at Vela Luka to Korcula town switches from one side of the island`s spine to the other, offering majestic maritime views that take silhouettes of island Hvar and Lastovo.

Most of Korcula`s hillsides are scarred with contour-hugging lines of piled-up rock, a reminder of the times when wine and olive bearing terraces covered the island. Cultivable land didn`t occur naturally and had to be created by brute force: surface rocks were broken and stacked up in huge wedges.

When phylloxera (vine lice) reached the island in 1925., old vineyards were abandoned and a lot of Korculans emigrated to Australia or North America. Olive plantations to some extent replaced the wines.

Everything on the island of Korcula is used to be vineyards.

Most of the rustic taverns serve wines Posip, the crisp white wine that comes from the fields below villages Cara and Smokvica.

What makes the local olive oils special is the blend of bitter Lastovka olives with smoother tasting strains such as Oblica and Drobnica.

The most sought; after of Korcula`s oils is Torkul. Torkula is a combination of Drobnica and Lastovka.

Good food, wine, olive…it is Korcula.